Chance The Rapper Schools ESPN On ‘Responsibility’ And ‘Murder’ In Surprising Twitter Speech After Race Relations Mix-Up

Chance the Rapper will not be at ESPN’s town hall about race relations Friday. He made that abundantly clear during a Twitter speech Tuesday. The performer said he was insulted to be erroneously included in the event — dubbed “An Undefeated Conversation: Athletes, Responsibility and Violence” — and then schooled EPSN on “responsibility.”

“I saw some publications report that I'll be at the @espn forum about athletes' and celebrities' responsibility to speak on issues. Not true,” he wrote. “But since I won't be there let me just say a few thoughts on ‘responsibility.’”

Even though Chance won’t be speaking at the event, he has plenty of thoughts about the issue. Here is the entertainer’s full statement as it appears on his Twitter account:

“It is the responsibility of our court systems to fully represent and work for the people in all cases of murder. It is the responsibility of all media outlets to correctly label all killings by [first] responders as what they are: Murders. It is the responsibility of all first responders to deescalate unlawful situations and restore peace without committing murder. And it is the responsibility of athletes and celebrities to say all that out loud whether at a forum, on twitter or at work.”

He finished with a meme of rapper Kanye West and said he did not have a problem with ESPN after the misunderstanding. “I have no issues [with] @espn neither one of us seem to know who sent out a press release saying I'd be at that forum.”

ESPN has not yet responded to Chance’s statement.

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